Environmental Issues: Transportation

All Documents in Transportation Tagged electricity

Cleaner FuelsIt’s time to move beyond oil and develop cleaner fuels to run America’s cars, trucks and buses.Overview

Running our cars and trucks on cleaner fuels like biofuels and electricity, and stopping dirty alternatives, is a critical part of developing a new energy economy.

Documents Tagged electricity in All Sections

Home Idle LoadDevices Wasting Huge Amounts of Electricity When Not in Active UseIssue Paper

There has been a veritable explosion in the number of electronics, appliances, and other equipment plugged into, or permanently connected to, America's homes. Most are consuming electricity around-the-clock, even when the owners are not using them or think they have been turned off. This always-on energy use by inactive devices translates to $19 billion a year -- about $165 per U.S. household.

The explosion of digital content, big data, e-commerce, and Internet traffic is making data centers one of the fastest growing users of electricity in developed countries, and one of the key drivers in the construction of new power plants in some regions of the United States.

Wasted energy means wasted money. National energy efficiency standards that the U.S. Department of Energy is establishing for more than 50 types of household appliances and commercial products in our homes, businesses, and industries help cut that energy waste: they set a dependable minimum level of energy efficiency that all Americans can count on to reduce energy waste and lower their energy bills.

Currently, Americans spend $9 billion annually to operate their dryers, but extensive research by NRDC and its consultant Ecova shows that just updating residential dryers to the level of the most efficient versions sold overseas could save U.S. consumers a whopping $4 billion a year. Now is the time to seize the massive energy savings opportunity they represent.